Snapchat Employees Allegedly Used Data Access to Spy on Users

A new report suggests Snapchat employees abused their access to data to spy on users.

According to Vice, two former Snap employees spoke to Motherboard about the alleged breach of privacy, claiming they used an internal tool called Snaplion to collect user information several years ago.

The tool initially served as a way to gather and provide law enforcement with information in the event that they needed it, but now, it's come everyone's attention that a number of employees had access to the data, which included location information, email addresses, phone numbers and even saved Snaps.

SnapLion provides "the keys to the kingdom," one of the former employees said.

It's unclear how the data was misused or when exactly this abuse could have occurred, but this isn't the first time Snapchat has been accused of being shady with data. Back in 2014, the FTC fined the company after they failed to inform the public, as well as its users, that they were collecting and storing data.

In response to the report, Snap issued the following statement via Forbes:

"Any perception that employees might be spying on our community is highly troubling and wholly inaccurate. Protecting privacy is paramount at Snap. We keep very little user data, and we have robust policies and controls to limit internal access to the data we do have, including data within tools designed to support law enforcement," the company wrote. "Unauthorized access of any kind is a clear violation of the company's standards of business conduct and, if detected, results in immediate termination."